EMERALD DYNASTY NEWSLETTER~! ISSUE 27: THE IT'S GOT A NEW NAME BUT MAYBE ONLY FOR THIS ISSUE BUT MAYBE FROM NOW ON ISSUE.

It has a new name.

In honor of the late great Mitsuharu Misawa. I have renamed the newsletter to this. But it's not a for sure exact new name. But for this issue, it is the name going to be used. If you have a better name, I'd like to hear it. UltimoPhoenix AT Gmail.com. It only because a matter of time untill we changed the name as we didn't do these by week anymore. Same blogspot address. Thisweekincombatsports.blogspot.com and that will stay the same for now.

UFC 104.

First of all, I demand my credit. I said in my Gerweck preview that the best way for Shogun to win was by using LEG AND BODY KICKS. Now, I told you people this after the David Heath fight at UFC 70. This was almost 30 months ago.


Anyways. I'm sure by now you all know about the decision. Lyoto Machida ended up winning a close decision. But really it wasn't close. Most of the people that watched the fight with me had it 49-46. But most of the rounds ended up being very close. In fact. Myself, Stephan and Lyn had 49-46 all while scoring different rounds for each man. Each judge had it 48-47 for Lyoto. Is this bullshit? Kinda. But it was close enough of a fight to where you could make a case.


There's three main things I've heard after the fight.


1. Cecil Peoples explanation of his scoring saying that "Leg kicks don't count"


What?


So you totally discredit a mans offense just because it doesn't count?


FUCK.

Okay. Here's the thing. Mirko Cro Cop destroyed Hidehiko Yoshida in PRIDE with Leg Kicks. Keith Jardine has a KO via leg kick. So to say that leg kicks don't count is absurd. Mauro Ranallo had a great rant about that on the fight show (Hardcoresportsradio.com. October 26th, segment 1.)


2. "To be the champ you have to beat the champ"


This one is really absurd. Let's talk about how this started. This phrase started about the time that Muhammad Ali/Cassius Clay refused to serve in the military. Now. Howard Cosell talked about the Heavyweight Championship, which was stripped from Ali after being put in jail for four years. Cosell said "to be the champ, you have to beat the champ." This was a basic way of Cosell defending Ali and his claim to still being the linear heavyweight champion. Over time this has been made into some sort of opinion involving judges saying that in a close competitive fight, the champion gets a round if it's even. I have never believed this. And I sure don't think that it applies to MMA.


3. The Cecil Peoples doll. I don't need to be sent this a bunch of times. Simply because, even though Cecil Peoples is a bad judge and referee in the public eye, I've seen much worse referees and judges. In fact someone made the comment that Cecil peoples is the Dalby Shirley of MMA judging. When really Dalby Shirley is the Dalby Shirley of MMA judging.

So anyways. The good news is that it leads to a rematch. My main issue with this fight.

Why the hell didn't Machida try ANY takedowns?


Shogun is a man susceptible to takedowns and ground and pound. I don't know if it was a case of lyoto's trainers or Lyoto had too much confidence in his stand up. But too much confidence in something to the point where it prevents you from forming a proper gameplan is not good. It almost cost him the title, and if he does it again, I doubt he'll get lucky twice.


DREAM 12.


It was awesome.

Marius Zaromskis winning via headkick KO, Sakuraba getting beaten and punched a billion times and still getting the submission. Eddie Alvarez with a nice submissions. James Thompson losing in a minute. Kendo Kashin losing via murder to Katsuyori Shibata. Michael Schiavello having an orgasm when the crazy PRIDE announcer lady introduced Kazushi Sakuraba.

What a great show.

The show took place from Osaka Castle Hall in Osaka Japan, and took place in front of about 500 people. Think I'm joking? Well, only a little. Because this looked like the smallest crowd in K-1/DREAM history. Probably will be the smallest TV audience ever, or at least close to it.

This show was also notable for being the fist major MMA show in Japan to take place in a cage. I guess the Strikeforce/DREAM working agreement includes the Strikeforce cage making an appearance in DREAM. Whatever. We already had Yuji Shimada trying to shoehorn himself into the the Gilbert Melendez Vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida rematch.

I'm not doing a recap. Just go watch it...god this newsletter sucks.

I have Park Place.
By Lillith Klien.

I was playing Monopoly today. And I got Park Place on my soft drink. I'm one piece away from winning a million dollars!


So? Big deal...everyone knows everybody gets Park Place.

...Look. I'm desperate for stuff to wrote about. That was filler. I'll admit it..

News:

News Panel: Jamie Sullivan, Lilith Klien, Lyn Sullivan.

Done: Via recorder in James' front room.


JS: Alrighty. This should be quick. Because I don't watch wrestling.

LK: So...how are we going to do this if you don't watch wrestling.

JS: Well I still watch Raw.

LK: Ah.

JS: And I'm doing this from boredom.

JS: By the way, you guys may have realized this. I never did. Bryan. Our friend Bryan.

LS: Yes.

JS: His son.

LS: Yes.

JS: For those of you who don't know, our friend Bryan, who is legit 6'8". He has a kid.

LS: Yes.

JS: I never knew his kid's name.

LS: Yes.

JS: Bryan's last name is Valentine. Bryan Valentine.

LK: Oh god.

JS: Do you know what Bryan's kids name is?

LS: ...I do not.

LK: I do...

JS: Lyn, you have one guess.

LS: ...Vincent?

JS: Yep.

LS: Oh god...

LK: *Laughs*

JS: Bryan named his kid...Vincent Valentine.

LK: ...I don't know if that's buys or no buys.

LS: I think it's awesome.

JS: Really?

LS: Yeah. I'm sorry, that's so geeky it was awesome.


LK: So, you don't watch Wrestling.

JS: Yep.

LK: So what are we going to talk about?

JS: Will I still watch Raw.

LK: Oh.

LS: Well that still leaves us with nothing.

JS: Hey. Randy Orton has an Ortonmobile.

LK: Had it. Remember? It got messed up or whatever.

LS: WWE has a great history of destroying cars. I was really disapointed when they only like, keyed his car and put paint on it

JS: You know, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch on Raw was even worse than Jeremy Piven.

LS: It was. *Laughs*

LK: You know. Tiffany is so bad of a GM both in and out of Kayfabe. She sucks on camera and nobody wants to work on her show.

LS: I think ECW has like four people on it's roster. And it doesn't matter anyways, because everybody ends up on every show.

LK: And I guess it's HHH Vs. Michaels Vs. Cena for the title at...I think Survivor Series.

LS: Yes, that's right Jamie. You're missing what will be an awesome feud...

JS: ...Three faces?

LS: Yep.

JS: ...Oh yeah. That'll be good.


JS: So I guess we have to talk about Shane McMahon.

LK: ...Why?

JS: ...You know what? You're right.

LS: You want to talk about Hulk Hogan?

JS: What did he do?

LS: He joined TNA.

JS: ...I leave on Sabbatical for like 6 weeks and this industry goes nuts.

LK: I think it's just a ploy to merge the Australia tours.


JS: ...You know what? I give up. I'm gonna get something to eat. You guys are on your own.

LS: *Laughs* Bye Jamie.

JS: Screw you.

LK: Well, I'd like to talk about Hogan.

LS: Okay.

LK: This is gonna help TNA. I know nobody agrees with me.

JS*From Kitchen*: Oh yeah it's gonna help.

LK: It's gonna probably increase the rating at least briefly of the TV show. As long as we don't get the, what I believe will be the inevitable Nasty Boys Tag Team title run.

LS: Someone just installed a second glass ceiling in TNA. And I guess he's going to have creative control over his character. That's to be expected. And any show that Eric Bischoff produces for TNA he will have control over. Eric will have control over that is. I'm assuming this jsut means that Flair/Hogan proposed reality show.


LK: Well what else could it mean? Hogan's really gonna take over control of a company? Get involved in the day to day business of a company? You really think that's going ot happen?


LS: ...Jim Cornette is one lucky man.


LS: We have, actually I want to go back to the Raw thing with Logano and Busch.

LK: ...Really?

LS: Yeah, I mean, they got a good reaction at first. I Buffalo of all places. I don't imagine many fans there going to Watkins Glen. But they got a good reaction...until they opened their mouths. Then everything went downhill. And I just kinda stopped caring after that. They acted really goofy and giggled a bunch on camera. This was bad Television. Then they made the Triple Threat, THEN Smackdown ends up making the same match for Survivor Series...


LK: This shows you what kind of company this is right now creative-wise.


LS: Yeah.


LK: I still like my idea for an angle. And I will admit I didn't come up with it on my own. Someone else did but it's just too good not to be used. Where Jim Ross gets hit by a car in a backstage segment before every match for 6 months. Then we find out it's JR that's the driver. That's Buys.



The ongoing adventures of Takeshi Tanahashi.



(Don't know who Takeshi Tanahashi is? Check out the ASWF threads for a refresher course.)



(The following is an unfinished promo, finished due to boredom.This means that it's filler and as such you probably shouldn't expect much of the spelling to be fixed.)



Background: Takeshi Tanahashi, set to leave the ASWF, starts getting some of his stuff out of what will eventually be someone else's room. Takeshi has been forced to pick UFC over ASWF as he has a title shot against BJ Penn coming up in December.



*At the ASWF arena. We see various members of the roster walking around before seeing the camera settle in on a man and a woman sitting in front of a rather large locker room.*



Leon: So, I don't get it. He said he hated my tie. And then he went out and bought one just like it.



Dae: ...Maybe he was secretly jealous.



Leon: Of a tie.



Dae: It's possible.



Leon: ...He does seem like the jealous type.



Dae: Every man is jealous. Remember? This is the wrestling industry. A industry where grown men act like idiots to prove that they are better than each other.



Leon: ...I don't do that do I.



Dae: ...



*Takeshi walks past them*



Takeshi: Hey guys.



Dae: Takeshi. Does Leon seem like the jealous type?



Takeshi: ...No. He's too dumb to be jealous.



Leon: ...Alright. I can live with that.



Dae: You'd rather be dumb than a jealous person.



Takeshi: Leon...I don't mean that as a complement.



Leon: How so?



Takeshi: ...Look at it this way. Would you rather date a stupid girl, or a evil girl? The answer is an evil girl. You know why? Because you have to be smart to be evil.



Leon: ...You seem like a smart man...and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.



Dae: So what are you doing here Takeshi?



Takeshi: Oh, umm, I'm getting my stuff. I'm leaving. For real this time...and I mean it this time.



Dae: You'll be back.



Takeshi: Only after I defeat everybody in the 155 division and shut Frenchie up.



Dae: Who.



*A woman walks in from the right*



Kali: I think he's talking abotu Georges St. Pierre.



Takeshi: No, actually I'm talking about Sean Sherk.



Kali: You uh...care to explain yourself?



Takeshi: Umm...what?



Leon: I'm getting popcorn.



Kali: The stolen car?



Takeshi: ...Oh, that whatever it is?



Kali: Where is it?



Takeshi: ...Why do you ask?



Kali: Because you stole it...FROM US.



Takeshi: Huh?



Dae: Huh?



Leon *With popcorn in mouth*: Huh?



Kali: Give it back.



Takeshi: I have no idea what the f*ck you're talking about.



Dae: Takeshi, what's going on?



Takeshi: I stole a car from our old boss in San Francisco. I don't normally go for american cars, but I was in a situation and I needed to get out of it.



Dae: What kind of car?



Takeshi: ...Pontiac Firebird? Or no wait maybe it was a Trans-Am.



Dae: I watch a little Top Gear. Im just wondering.



Takeshi: You know what I want? A Ford GT. Those things go FAST.



Kali: HEY! Where is it!



Takeshi: Where's what?



Kali: THE CAR!



Takeshi: What car?



Kali: The car you stole?



Takeshi: Oh...well, I can't rememeber.



Dae: Takeshi, if you stole a car from MTN, you should give it back.



Takeshi: ...What are you talking about?



Kali: You stole his Trans-Am.



Takeshi: ...No I didn't.



Kali: Yeah you did. You stole a Trans-Am, "From our old boss" and Derek's missing one. Give it up.



Takeshi: Wait...I don't know about all of that. But I didn't steal from MTN.



Kali: You didn't?



Takeshi: No. I stole it from M. I hate that guy.



*A quiet confusion ensues*



Everyone: OH~!



Takeshi: Yeah. I hated that guy.



Kali: Wait well then, who stole Derek's car?



*Another woman walks in*



Gina: I think I know why...



*Silence*



Dae: Takeshi, why is Women's Mixed Martial Arts Superstar and actor Gina Carano here?



Takeshi: ...Because I know her?



Dae: ...Ah...



Gina: You see, M secretly stole Derek's Trans-Am a few nights ago. Takeshi and Tifa and I stole the car while trying to run away from people and Takeshi ended up jacking M, who ended up jacking it from MTN a few days before...But what Takeshi didn't know was that before he decided to make his comeback, Dana White decided to prevent him from doing Pro Wrestling, so when he came back here, he wasn't expecting to be bombarded with stuff from Kali about stealing the car. Then Takeshi seceretly put the car keys in a safe hidden somewhere in the building so that no one would get to it, only Takeshi twin brother stole the keys, it wasn't untill later that I found out that Takeshi doesn't have a twin brother, and that he stole the keys from himself...and that...is where Babies come from.



Takeshi: What? From car theft?



Gina: Yes.



Kali: Hmm, I remember learning about you know, people loving each other. And that's how it happened.



Takeshi: Kali, Gina's been through a rough patch recently.



Kali: Ah...that's right, I forgot.



*Silence*



Takeshi: So then, who vandalized my Evo X?



Gina: ...Hell I dunno. Have any vengeful exes?



Takeshi: *Looks at Dae*



Dae: Don't look at me. I'd sell it for money.



Gina: Right. And I'd drive it all the way to Mexico for no good reason.



*Camera shifts to Leon*



Takeshi: And I'm Leon, and I'm the biggest idiot ever.



Leon: Dude...knock it off.



Takeshi: Well, I guess if it's Derek's I can give it back to you. I don't feel right about stealing from anybody I don't give a shit about. And besides, in a way, I got at M. And I think we can all agree on that.



Everybody: Yeah.



Takeshi: C'mon. I'll show you where it is.



Kali: But what about all that stuff Gina said?



Takeshi: What about it? She's punch drunk...and a bad actor.



Gina: Hey...screw you.



*The five wak to the parking lot where the car is*



Takeshi: See, it's right over...



*Takeshi looks over to see it vandalized much like his Evo X was, with the words " I GOT YOU AGAIN YOU SON OF A BITCH." spray painted on the side.*



Takeshi: This guys' really into the spray paint thing.

Mailbag.

These first two are from Iowa.

1. With Lesnar having to withdraw from UFC 106 with whatever disease/illness/sickness that he has, how long is it going to be before we see him defending the title in the octagon, and will it be against the same opponent or is he going to be given someone else because White can do such things?

2. With the "controversial" decision, and I use the quotation marks loosely, at UFC 104, has there been a quick rematch before in the history of the UFC and under what circumstances was it made? It seems like you get rematches in boxing for natural reasons, but in the UFC it always seems like one and done between opponents

Start out with the first question. It's going to be I guess UFC 109 or whatever the Superbowl show is. And it will be Shane Carwin. But this is kinda interesting because it really makes us ask where Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is going to fit into all of this. Nogueira was probably going to get a shot sometime in early 2010, this puts that off. I'm wondering if maybe they give him another opponent before that fight. I'm sure Nogueira probably wouldn't be too happy with it, but it wouldn't suprise me if it happened.

Second question. It's odd this is brought up because it reminds me of the first time this happened. UFC 31 featured Randy Couture defending his Heavyweight Title against Pedro Rizzo. Couture won a split decision that was super tight. It was so close that Zuffa made an immediate rematch for UFC 34 (well, about as immediate of a rematch as you can have when you were only having like 4-5 PPV's a year.) Couture dominated Rizzo in the rematch and retained the belt. I'll let you be the judge of how close that decision really was as the first fight was put up on Youtube recently and it should be looked up.

"Marius Zaromskis. Top 10 Welterweight?"

-Marcus.

No. I know that we all want to have love for the new High kick headhunter, but not yet. A win over a more than past his prime Hayato Sakurai is somewhat impressive, but I would like to see him face tougher competition. Word is that he'll be moving to Strikeforce soon where there is a lot of good 170 pounders. I'd like to see him and how well he would do there. In a related note, I will also try to get the Zaromskis fight from Dream 12 this past weekend up as well.

"Do you see, like, any good at all coming form Hogan going to TNA?"

-Soueaster.

Well Mr. Soueaster...if that is your real name. Um. I'm going to say probably yes. If they use Hogan at all and if they use him in an interesting way, then yes he might help the ratings. Eric Bischoff is more of a hot button topic for me. Eric Bischoff without a doubt is the main reason why WCW had it's run. But he lucked into a promotion that was already doing decent numbers on TV and PPV with Hogan and Savage and his list of stars. TNA doesn't have that yet. In fact, TNA in primetime gets about half the numbers that WCW Saturday Night did and WCW Saturday Night was on in the afternoons on Saturday. WCW also still had a large fanbase in place even though it was the #2 company in America. Yeah sure, TNA is #2. But it's nowhere near the level of WCW, or maybe for that matter, maybe even ECW. At least ECW was watchable television despite Heyman being the singular cause for that promotion losing every single dollar it had and then some.

Secondarily, WCW had better talent, a better time slot, more fans and a hell of a lot more to work with than TNA has. So, everyone who thinks that Eric Bischoff having any sort of say in anything TNA does is going to have an effect, he probably won't. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if all he does is a reality show with Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. Although from what I was told that Hulk is telling everybody that he's the man in charge in TNA and the only man above him is Bob Carter because he's all the money so...there you go.

Wolf asks.

"What are the plans for the IWGP Tag Titles.

Good question. I only sorta know about the situation because most of this has happened while I've stopped watching wrestling breifly, but Team 3-D won the belts back at Bound For Glory. I assume this only means the end of yet another Russoriffic series of title changes involving a Japanese title. As most of you may remember, Russo did something similar with the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title booking an unauthorized title change with I think Juventud Guerrera over Jushin Liger. New Japan got rahter pissed off and did not recognized the title change. Probably a good thing to stay away from anything Vince Russo. But I'm guessing this is going to end up with another title change at the January 4th Tokyo Dome show. If it were up to me it would be Togi Makabe getting revenge and taking the belts home with...really anybody. That's what I would book. I don't know what New Japan would do, but I know that it would probably make for another great Global impact.

Wolf also asks why Akibono makes $3000 a show while MiSu (I'm assuming this is Minoru Suzuki) only makes $2500.

Umm, there's a few reasons for that. 1. Minoru Suzuki is not dependent on money from wrestling, he has a lot of other things that he is into. He has a few gyms, he trains MMA fighters and trains submission wrestling. He does MMA and Submission Wrestling training camps. He's not too dependent on Pro Wrestling being his main primary source of income.

Someone who wished to remain anyonomous asks.

"Why si it that people automatically turn off whenever Japanese Wrestling and/or Lucha is mentioned in a conversation about wrestling. It seems that it's trying to ignore an important group of lessons involving what to do and what not to do. And that ignoreing them just because it happened in another country seems rather ignorant.

Umm, yeah. It is ignorant. But I use the old phrase "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink." Here's the deal. I know that for some reaons American Pro Wrestling fans have some sort of negative opinion of Puro fans but the truth is that, from what I've dealt with, Puro and Lucha fans are usually more intellegent and have a better ability to make points in terms of business than the usuall American fan who jsut screams about Vince Russo and yells to Push The Crusierweights. Is that bad? Yeah, I kinda think it is. Not being able to ignore maybe, some of the more full of themselves Japanese wrestling fans and perhaps ignore the person and instead read into the lessons that are being offered. It doesn't really say much for the Puro or Lucha fan talking. But it doesn't say much for the other person who isn't willing to properly listen.

On That note it's just about time for me to skidattle. Lilith? What's up next time?

"Taylor Wilde will be interviewed. And that's about all I can say. But hopefully we can do it this weekend."

Alrighty. That's it for this edition of the newsletter. Comments, Questions and Mail Bombs can all be sent to UltimoPhoenix AT Gmail.com and maybe you can PM at this account as well if you are in The Adult Swim boards.

Thanks for reading.